Marathon: Durandal and Spyglass Board Games are now available on the Xbox Live Arcade, as previously announced. Marathon is an old-school FPS originally developed by Bungie, the guys behind Halo. While you may not have had a chance to play it before – or even hear of it – it’s a game that introduced many mechanics into the FPS genre that have been taken for granted for years now, like dual wielding. The game will run you 800 Microsoft Points, or $10. If you liked Doom, be sure to give Marathon a shot.

Spyglass Board Games is a compilation of four very popular classic board games: chess, checkers, mancala, and reversi. Given its cheap price (400 points; $5) and Vision Camera support, it’s definitely something worth picking up if you enjoy any of the included games.

Advertisement

UPDATE: For all of you Negative Nancys out there, the news has been made official on Bungie.net. Head over there for details on the two Elites players three and four will take the role of (pictured above).

ORIGINAL STORY: While the news has yet to make it onto Bungie.net, a post made on the NeoGAF forums a short while ago posted a translation from Dutch website Inside Gamer stating that Halo 3 would support 4-player co-op. While the wording was difficult to understand (and initially looked like it might only be confirming 4-player split-screen co-op), Bungie’s Luke Smith has given this the thumbs up with a single word: “Believe.”

He later in the thread stated that news about this would make its way onto the official Bungie website later today, but this is huge news for Halo fans who were told that Halo 3 wouldn’t even be supporting online co-op.

As a huge Halo fan, I’m absolutely ecstatic over this. Online co-op in any form would have been fantastic. But FOUR players? That’s ridiculously awesome. I just wonder who the third and fourth players will play the role of.

Finally, Bungie’s Marathon. The game that was arguably better than Doom back in the day, but got little no attention because it was released only on Macs. (That’s what they get.) Marathon: Durandal, however, is actually the sequel to the original Marathon which saw a release on both Windows and Mac. The XBLA port was developed by Freeverse, and includes a variety of features that will make it worth its 800 Microsoft Point price tag – HD graphics, Xbox Live play, and co-op.

Spyglass Board Games has been heavily anticipated by many gamers, as for 400 Microsoft Points you get a sweet package of Chess, Checkers, Mancala and Reversi, all with Xbox Live Vision Camera support.

The speculation is true – the latest issue of EGM confirms that Halo 3’s co-op (which will exist offline, with player two playing as the Arbiter) is not currently online. Bungie is working to get the feature implemented, but currently it isn’t happening. Considering they have a very limited amount of time left to work on the game, it seems highly unlikely that online co-op will make it into the retail version of the game. Of course, we could always get it through a patch or downloadable content down the road – but so help me if it costs even a penny.

“We’re not dumb,” says Bungie’s Frank O’Conner. “We know that people want it and we’re trying to make it happen. I think the biggest problem for us for online co-op is that we have a situation where you can be in a Warthog with five troops, almost a mile away from the other player. That’s a significant challenge. And there’s lots of design things you could do to prevent that from happening, but they would make it not feel like Halo anymore. If we can make it happen in a way that works well, we will - and if it works badly, we won’t.”

A smattering of other things are revealed in the EGM story, as well, including new weapons and gear: the Flare (flashbang), the Mauler (dual-wieldable Brute shotgun),the Gravity Hammer (according to CVG it sends vehicles flying), and the Regenerator (opposite of the power drainer). New vehicles include the Prowler, Hornet, and Elephant. They don’t sound quite as cool as Ghosts, Banshees and Warthogs, but hopefully they play well. Additionally, a remake of the popular Halo 2 map Lockout was revealed, now known as Guardian.

Depending on what you’re expecting from Halo Wars, you’re either going to be very happy or very disappointed. From all indications, Halo Wars looks like it’s going to be a straight-up RTS with a Halo theme. If you were hoping for something more innovative (that’s not to say the game won’t be innovative, but from this 30 second clip nothing really jumped out), you’re going to be upset with what Ensemble Studios has to show.

Announced during Microsoft’s press conference not long ago, Genesis classics Sonic The Hedgehog and Golden Axe are now available for Live Arcade. Sweetening the surprise is the pricing; they’ll only cost you five bucks (400 Microsoft Points) each, exactly three dollars less than their $8 Wii Virtual Console counterparts. Sega’s giving 360 owners a discount.

Also announced via the same Live Arcade footage reel was Marathon: Durandal. Development is being outsourced to Freeverse, a smaller Mac-focused outfit who’ve decided to remove the “2” in the games title. This is no mere re-branding: what was shown reveals a major visual overhaul. All of the games sprites and textures have been re-painted, resulting in a more polished version of what staunch Mac addicts got down on twelve years ago. No price or release details, but it’ll have a good home when it arrives: a Bungie classic reborn should sit well with the audience.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend E3 this year – instead, I’m on vacation in Cape Cod, using awful hotel Wi-Fi to watch streamed press conferences. Not the most glamorous way to take it all in, but exciting announcements, great games and new details are welcome no matter how you hear about them.

Here’s my personal transcription (in very brief form) of all the announcements and showings, along with some reflection on what Microsoft had to show.

Luke Smith has posted a drool-worthy Halo 3 screenshot over on Bungie.net, saying only that it is in-game and from the game’s campaign. That’s it. We know nothing more, but at least we can stare to our hearts’ content. Come on, September 25!

Oh, Halo 3 beta, how I will miss you. We had such good times together. Whether it was VIP on Snowbound, Territories on Valhalla or 1 Flag CTF on High Ground, you never failed to entertain me. The countless kills with the Spartan Laser were never any less satisfying than my very first one. Headshots, ohhh the headshots; the way you would fling the recipient’s body backwards. The satisfying noise spike grenades would make when sticking to someone. Intense firefights, bubble shields, endless bouts of profanity-filled gaming – you were only a beta, a simple beta, yet few things could measure up to the experience you served up each and every time I played a game.

In fact, you mean so much to me, I’ve written you a Haiku. I hope it has the correct number of syllables, because I’m far too depressed to do the appropriate research.

The so called “Limited” Edition (limited to the number of them they can sell, no doubt) of Halo 3 has had its case unveiled, and I’ve gotta say – it looks pretty sweet. Sweet to the point where I considered changing my plans to purchase the Legendary Edition. For only $70 – $10 more than the standard edition, and $60 less than the Legendary Edition – you’ll receive a copy of the game, a bonus disc with all sorts of goodies, and a Halo fiction and art book. There was an erroneous picture floating around the internet that showed a second game disc, but this was proven to be a mistake on Microsoft’s end. Bungie.net’s Frankie explains the error:

The Collector’s Edition picture erroneously shows that it ships with a Bonus Content disc and a Game Two disc. Incorrect. It’s a mistake at MS’ end and we’re updating retailers with the correct image. The “Game Disc 2” shown in the art actually refers to an interactive Bonus Content disc. It’s an Xbox “executable” (think of it like a menu-driven disc, similar to the Official Xbox Magazine cover disc) and internally, has always been referred to as “Game Disc 2” because it has to go through the same certification process as Halo 3 itself. That was somehow communicated to MS retail marketing verbatim. Hence the error. No big deal.

It actually is a pretty complicated situation, so check after the break for the full explanation and list of contents for each Halo 3 SKU.